Rich countries must overcome their resistance to genetically engineered foods or risk cutting off the world’s poverty stricken populations from vital food supplies, said the United Nations in its 11th annual Human Development Report.
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The report, which is officially released today, pays much attention to the potential benefits of GM foods for the developing world. It acknowledges that they may pose risks to health and the environment but stresses that they will also increase food and nutrient supplies and thereby reduce hunger.
“These crops could significantly reduce malnutrition, which affects more than 800 million people worldwide,” it says.
To date, companies, NGOs and activists in the developed world have dominated the debate over the use of GM. In these countries, the report shows that the main concerns over biotechnology revolve around the potential health problems it poses. This is different, it says, to the trade-off in the developing world between GM crops and the possibility of starvation.
“’The opposition to yield-enhancing transgenic crops in industrial countries with food surpluses could block the development and transfer of those crops to food-deficit countries,” the report warns.
The UN blames regulators in the US, Canada and the EU for “ignoring the concerns of the developing world” and concludes that “imbalance of voices and influences needs to be rectified”.
